New to Music Creation.

This is my first post on these forums, so first of all I'd like to present myself. I'm Cedric, fifteen years old, and do 2D pixel graphics as a hobby and to get myself some cash. I've been playing the alto saxophone since I was eight, and also did 5 years of piano starting at the age of seven or so. So I know my way around playing music, but not composing it!

I'm currently in a two-man team with a czech programmer to create and sell a checkers game, for the PocketPC and other handheld platforms. I make the graphics and sounds, he takes care of programming.

That said, here is my first attempt at a simple, spooky theme for ingame play (and my first composition ever, for that matter). It will be longer, but before I continue I'd like to get some feedback on what I've done so far. I think I had a nice mood going on at the beginning of the piece, but I somehow lost it around the end.

To create the music, I'm using Aria Maestosa. It's quite a simplistic program (eg. cannot use more than one instrument at a time, in a piece) but I haven't managed to find a better free program. What are other composers using?

I don't think you'll want to be recommending $500 software to someone who's "new to music creation."

Go with Garageband. I'm hardly new to it and I've been using it for a couple of years. If you try hard enough, your tool won't make that much of a difference, though it would be good for you to move away from MIDI.

I fired up Garageband, but, as clear and concise Apple products usually are, I didn't manage to find out how to create notes. Is it just me, or do they only speak of selecting and moving around notes, not how to make them in the first place?

Or I'm just stupid.

Anyway, I continued using Aria Maestosa for a while yesterday, and I've started a new song.

I'm on a PC right now, so I can't point you to the exact menu option, but there is a virtual keyboard. Basically, hit record and play on it. You can also import your midi songs and assign new instruments to the tracks, remix them, etc.

ThemsAllTook Wrote:Not necessarily. Reason is well worth a look if you want something a little bit more advanced.

If you're gonna do that then go with ProTools, which is the industry standard.

I'd still recommend going with GarageBand because it's the easiest to use and doesn't get in the way of music creation, and it has plenty of hi-fidelity features to get the job done. Specifically, I personally know one music industry professional who owns lots of recording equipment, including ProTools, has access to world-class recording studios, and he swears by GarageBand.

Nah, you just have to be patient and read through the GarageBand docs carefully. What you'll want to do is create a software instrument track. Then you can either use the virtual keyboard, or if you have a real keyboard and midi converter you can use that, or you can manually draw the notes in the track editor view (or whatever it's called) at the bottom of the GarageBand window (click on the button with the scissors cutting a waveform to show it/hide it).

[edit]The keyboard PowerMacX and I were talking about is in the Window menu. You can also do Musical Typing. Don't forget to press record!

Hmm. I remember using that earlier, but I haven't played piano for years, and I don't think recording myself on a keyboard would create accurate results (I know I can round off rythm)!

My sister has two synthesizers and she agreed to give me one of them, so maybe that'll work out well. However, I don't think all of the pieces I want to make will fall within my 5-years of piano experience. They'll often be much more complex than I could dream of playing myself. Should I go back to Aria Maestosa when that happens?

Quote:However, I don't think all of the pieces I want to make will fall within my 5-years of piano experience. They'll often be much more complex than I could dream of playing myself. Should I go back to Aria Maestosa when that happens?

No way, just draw the notes in manually in the track editor yourself, which is what I do because I can't even play piano! Plus, you can't really keyboard in drums. Unfortunately it's been so long since I've played with it that I can't remember if there was a proper way to do it, but you can record one note with the keyboard and then cut and paste it around to make new notes and lengthen/shorten, etc. You have to play with it for a little while to really get the hang of it, but it gets pretty easy after some practice. Holding down option and dragging a note in the track editor is a quick way to make a new one. I just wish I could remember if they had a new note insertion tool other than the keyboard or musical typing.